Friday, March 14, 2014
Chairman's (Omni Shoreham)
Scholarly work dealing with racial and ethnic issues in France and more specifically Black populations have been on the rise in the last decade. The analysis of "race in France" has been undertaken by historians and sociologists with more or less implicit references to the American situation. (Fassin et Fassin 2006 ; Ndiaye 2008). Some works have had explicit comparative perspectives (Cohen, Diamond et Vervaecke 2012). A growing number of work by American scholars tend to analyze or expect the rise or consolidation of the same color line that already exists in the US (Chapman et Frader 2004). Such premises are thus considered to explain the forms taken by black identities and movements in France (Gueye 2010 ; Keaton, Deanan Sharpley-Whiting et Stovall 2012). Others have examined the memory of slavery and its impact on the shaping of black identities (Fleming 2011, Gross forthcoming)
The transnational dimension of the production of scholarly work on Blackness in France is the main focus of this proposal. I analyze studies of « Blackness » in France through and reflexively assess my previous comparative research on social movements by French Caribbeans in mainland France and Puerto Ricans in the US. I engage questions such as: How does the transnational circulation of ideas and comparative frameworks shape the type of knowledge produced in France and in the US on these issues? What is the impact of such circulations on the French academic world ? What are the references and concepts developed in these works ?
